Organic buildup and residual blood on clean infant stethoscopes used in maternal-infant areas.

摘要

ince the mid 1980s, health care workers have attempted to eliminate contact with blood and other body via primary or secondary exposure. At delivery, stethoscopes used on newly born infants come in direct contact with blood and body fluids from the skin of the infant. If contaminants such as blood and body fluids still remain on stethoscopes despite cleaning, an environmental risk may exist.;Using a naturalistic setting, a non-experimental, two group post-test design was implemented to investigate the occurrence of organic buildup and residual blood on clean stethoscopes used on infants in the delivery and/or nursery areas. Eleven hospitals were chosen as data collection sites from a non-probability sampling technique.;Results showed that of 97 clean stethoscopes used on newly born infants, 41 of 51 L&D stethoscopes (80%) and 33 of 46 stethoscopes found in nursery areas (72%) had organic buildup on the diaphragm of the stethoscope. There were no differences in the rates of organic buildup between L&D and nursery areas (;A significant association was found between organic buildup and residual blood